2011/12/09

VOL.3 ACCOUNTS OF THE ABSINTHE " GREEN HOUR " CONGREGATION TOKYO

A long long time ago , in the days before absinthe had been prohibited , ladies and gentlemen would indulge in a cafe the joy of " GREEN HOUR " after a long day of labour .

むかしむかし、アブサンが禁止される以前、人々は労働の長い一日を終えたあとカフェで”グリーンアワー”の楽しみに熱中したものでした。

Ebisu Tokyo, November 26, forgotten century. On a chilly august evening hundreds of finely attired Tokyolites traversed this dark corridor to be part of Absinthe Tokyo's third semi-annual Green Hour Festival.

11月26日。東京、恵比寿。ひんやりとした夜、上品にな装いをした東京人たちが、”グリーンアワー”に参加するためこの薄暗い廊下を渡ってきた。

The stage for the evening's events, for the second consecutive time, were the spacious grounds of the Nakameguro underground speakeasy Berry. A venue that in older days used to house a factory, the air has now been made pungent with absinthe and the space filled with people thirsty to make acquaintance the green fairy.

This is the watering station, where dreams are made. Clouded drinks and clouded judgement.

Not unlike the absinthe, the people began to pour in - from every corner and from under every rock of the world.

Dressed, undressed, over dressed, under dressed. "I didn't know there was a dress code". "There isn't". Do real green fairies wear clothes? As a side note no one has ever experienced the height of the belle époque, and we experience it now through pictures. So why all the hats?

The ghosts of walls before long to be part of the present. They are left painted and forgotten, as are their smells, stains, and sentiments.

The bands plays through the haze of inebriation.酩酊のもやの中、バンドが演奏する。

And what enchanting evening would be complete without a burlesque show to stimulate one's appetite for alcohol.

そしてアルコール欲を刺激するバーレスクショーがなければ、魅惑的なイベントははじまらない。

And did God create DJs in his own image? We are led to believe that he did.

And on the thirteenth day God said let there be dance, shortly after proclaiming the existence of absinthe.

the usher of bad dreams.

Of the nights many events was the crowd riling absinthe fountain competition. Since the invention of the wheel, man has strived to improve on what is arguably his second greatest invention - the absinthe fountain. Emotions ran high, higher than both the Superbowl and Sumo championship put together, as the convention disputed over who would be crowned captor of the prestigious title of Japan Absinthe Fountain King vol 3.

Aptly renamed the 'golden shower' during the nights festivities, this piece of engineering is the second brainchild of the absinthe fountain heavyweight Nigamushi. A known disciple of Thomas Edison himself, this creation represents the height of Nigamushi's creativity - a mysterious box out of which protrudes a shower head and a hand pump. And of course, after the absinthe the user can wash either their hands or their miniature poodle. Nice.

After years as a consumer of Absinthe, and quite possibly a consumer of harder confectionaries, the inspiration for this fountain came to it's creator, EvilTHeiL,Mr.D in the form of a dream. It is said that during a deep REM slumber flashes of lights, syringes and absinthe flooded the dreamer's cerebral alleys - and thus this fountain was born. To avoid the spreading of aids and other transmunicable diseases this fountain is cautiously made with only one water server. An absinthe fountain for the streets, let's keep them clean.

Made exclusively of parts obtained from the streets of Tokyo, or purchased at the japanese dollar store, 'La vache' is a fountain for either the homeless or low budgeted absinteur. In the olden days the herbs used in the distillation of absinthe were, after the absinthe was made, sometimes fed to the cows. As legend has it there was once one cow, in the small region of Vals de Travers Switzerland, that went mad, her eyes turned red, and would no longer produce milk. After weeks of frustration it was then discovered that if milked into an absinthe glass, instead of a bucket, the cow would produce the finest absinthe the locals had ever tasted. After only a few days of hard service the cow fled to the swiss countryside and was never seen again. The creator of this fountain, Seiji, claims that he never made this fountain, but that he only acquired the materials, and one day the cow appeared outside the front door of his apartment. Tokyo aficionados affirm that perhaps the cow is back.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the development of industrial techniques lead to a race for what still remains to be one of the most sought after dreams of modern engineering - the ELECTRICAL BRAIN, similar to what is known nowadays as the "computer". Though this fountain falls, if only a few steps, short of this goal, we at least know that the maker had absinthe on his mind. Made up of surplus electric brain parts from before the bursting of the high tech bubble, this fountain represents a new era in technology. After being let go from his high tech job, Astro Motor Works,Mr,T lived in a one room apartment with only his fish. After he could no longer afford to feed his fish,and was forced to eat their remains, he was left with only an aquarium and a variety of computer parts. Out of which he has now become the proud creator of 'Hesher'.

After hundreds of days travel on a japanese donkey in the eastern countryside, the inventor of this fountain, R, sought to create a fountain that was both portable and reliable, and made for horseback travel in the rugged outdoors. On one early summer morning, struggling with starvation and dehydration, R entered a japanese supermarket and left with two small paper bags. Within days he converted them into the 'micro absinthe dripper' - an absinthe fountain capable of miles of travel that can be fastened to either a belt or the side of your donkey. The need for something light and adherence to japanese space restrictions have resulted in a set that includes a spoon measuring 40 mm in length and a glass of 60 mm.

Inspired by the work of 1st century inventor Heron, Kazuma has invented "Heron’s Fountain", a fountain that bewildered spectators and left them going home with something to think about - science. Hydraulics, pneumatics, perpetual motion, gravitational potential energy, absintrifical fortification of the stratospherical unconscious... Concepts beyond the mind of the average absinthe bear. A project that spent years in development, Heron is the pinnacle of complexity, creativity, and alcoholism. Our hats are off to this years winner - and Tokyo absinthe fountain king.